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The Last Good Year: Seven Games That Ended an Era
Nominated for the 2019 Toronto Heritage Book Award
We may never see a playoff series like it again.
Before Gary Bettman, and the lockouts. Before all the NHL's old barns were torn down to make way for bigger, glitzier rinks. Before expansion and parity across the league, just about anything could happen on the ice. And it often did. It was an era when huge personalities dominated the sport; and willpower was often enough to win games. And in the spring of 1993, some of the biggest talents and biggest personalities were on a collision course.
The Cinderella Maple Leafs had somehow beaten the mighty Red Wings and then, just as improbably, the St. Louis Blues. Wayne Gretzky's Kings had just torn through the Flames and the Canucks. When they faced each other in the conference final, the result would be a series that fans still talk about passionately 25 years later.
Taking us back to that feverish spring, The Last Good Year gives an intimate account not just of an era-defining seven games, but of what the series meant to the men who were changed by Marty McSorley, the tough guy who took his whole team on his shoulders; Doug Gilmour, the emerging superstar; celebrity owner Bruce McNall; Bill Berg, who went from unknown to famous when the Leafs claimed him on waivers; Kelly Hrudey, the Kings' goalie who would go on to become a Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster; Kerry Fraser, who would become the game's most infamous referee; and two very different captains, Toronto's bull in a china shop, Wendel Clark, and the immortal Wayne Gretzky.
Fast-paced, authoritative, and galvanized by the same love of the game that made the series so unforgettable, The Last Good Year is a glorious testament to a moment hockey fans will never forget.
We may never see a playoff series like it again.
Before Gary Bettman, and the lockouts. Before all the NHL's old barns were torn down to make way for bigger, glitzier rinks. Before expansion and parity across the league, just about anything could happen on the ice. And it often did. It was an era when huge personalities dominated the sport; and willpower was often enough to win games. And in the spring of 1993, some of the biggest talents and biggest personalities were on a collision course.
The Cinderella Maple Leafs had somehow beaten the mighty Red Wings and then, just as improbably, the St. Louis Blues. Wayne Gretzky's Kings had just torn through the Flames and the Canucks. When they faced each other in the conference final, the result would be a series that fans still talk about passionately 25 years later.
Taking us back to that feverish spring, The Last Good Year gives an intimate account not just of an era-defining seven games, but of what the series meant to the men who were changed by Marty McSorley, the tough guy who took his whole team on his shoulders; Doug Gilmour, the emerging superstar; celebrity owner Bruce McNall; Bill Berg, who went from unknown to famous when the Leafs claimed him on waivers; Kelly Hrudey, the Kings' goalie who would go on to become a Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster; Kerry Fraser, who would become the game's most infamous referee; and two very different captains, Toronto's bull in a china shop, Wendel Clark, and the immortal Wayne Gretzky.
Fast-paced, authoritative, and galvanized by the same love of the game that made the series so unforgettable, The Last Good Year is a glorious testament to a moment hockey fans will never forget.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published October 23, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 10, 2023
Damien Cox is a long-time journalist covering the Toronto sports scene, having covered my beloved Toronto Maples Leafs for many years. Fans of this celebrated franchise have been through years of glory as well as periods of painful sorrow, as the team never seems able to gel enough to bring home the prize. Cox looks back at the National Hockey League’s Campbell Conference Final in 1993, where the Leafs came within one game of making it to the elusive Stanley Cup Finals.
This series was more than a seven game battle, but one that sports writers could use as symbolic of the last time the Leafs were truly championship ready and worthy. Cox briefly describes how the Leafs entered the 1993 playoffs as significant underdogs, but were able to claw their way through a seven game series with heavily favoured Detroit. Thereafter, it was another gritty match-up with St. Louis, who ended up being no match for Doug Gilmour and the Leafs as they checked their way into a Conference Final against Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings.
Cox takes his time exploring each of the seven games in detail, discussing the major happenings and dramatic flair each game brought, while interspersing backstories about the clubs, their players, and some of the dramatic happenings that brought both the Leafs and Kings to this point. This was more than a series, it was the culmination of years of successes—as well as a few abject failures—that would shape the game for years to come. In a series that could have brought about an all-Canadian Stanley Cup Final, the Leafs fell into trouble on the ice in the latter stages of the series and fell in a gruelling seventh game, breaking the hearts of many, including yours truly.
This is more than a story about hockey, but a way of life in Canada’s largest city as it relates to sports and the business of professional hockey. Cox enthrals the curious reader with facts, anecdotes, as some of the key events that shaped this hard-fought series that many players, fans, and journalists alike call one of the greatest in modern NHL history. Recommended for Leafs fans, as well as those who love hockey and its history in the latter part of the 20th century.
I remember this series and the heartbreak that it brought for me. I won’t explore it too much here, as I know there are few I call friends who read my reviews that share this same passion. That being said, a quarter of a century later, I have come to see that while the pain has dissipated, my curiosity in discussing it has not. Cox develops a wonderful narrative that describes how these two teams came to face one another, as well as the on-ice animosity that showed itself over the seven games. There was no inherent long-standing feud between these two teams, but bad blood arose in short order. The star players each team possessed, combined with the enforcers used to protect these assets, turned the series into one of rough play, bloodshed, and rule enforcement—or ignorance—by the referees.
Cox offers great context to better explain these two teams and key members of both franchises. This puts the series in context, as well as offering some poignant editorializing about the NHL and how it turned from being business heavy into solely a money-making league, with hockey only a means to amass greater wealth for both owners and players. Cox pulls no punches and does not let his Toronto roots cloud his sentiments, as he offers the reader some well-rounded discussion. Seeking less to argue a point than to offer up insight, Cox succeeds in telling his version of events and how things got to that pivotal game before Los Angeles found themselves bound to play the Montreal Canadiens and the Leafs were forced to wait for their trip to the Stanley Cup Finals—an event that has not happened for fifty-plus years. Well-researched and thoroughly educational, Cox has left readers with a stellar piece of sports writing that serves its purpose. I was enthralled throughout and think many hockey fans who enjoy more than on-ice events will be as well.
Kudos, Mr. Cox, for bringing this series to light again, twenty-five years later, which has allowed me to revisit things through adults eyes and better understand some of the behind the scenes events that I would have missed as a young fan!
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
This series was more than a seven game battle, but one that sports writers could use as symbolic of the last time the Leafs were truly championship ready and worthy. Cox briefly describes how the Leafs entered the 1993 playoffs as significant underdogs, but were able to claw their way through a seven game series with heavily favoured Detroit. Thereafter, it was another gritty match-up with St. Louis, who ended up being no match for Doug Gilmour and the Leafs as they checked their way into a Conference Final against Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings.
Cox takes his time exploring each of the seven games in detail, discussing the major happenings and dramatic flair each game brought, while interspersing backstories about the clubs, their players, and some of the dramatic happenings that brought both the Leafs and Kings to this point. This was more than a series, it was the culmination of years of successes—as well as a few abject failures—that would shape the game for years to come. In a series that could have brought about an all-Canadian Stanley Cup Final, the Leafs fell into trouble on the ice in the latter stages of the series and fell in a gruelling seventh game, breaking the hearts of many, including yours truly.
This is more than a story about hockey, but a way of life in Canada’s largest city as it relates to sports and the business of professional hockey. Cox enthrals the curious reader with facts, anecdotes, as some of the key events that shaped this hard-fought series that many players, fans, and journalists alike call one of the greatest in modern NHL history. Recommended for Leafs fans, as well as those who love hockey and its history in the latter part of the 20th century.
I remember this series and the heartbreak that it brought for me. I won’t explore it too much here, as I know there are few I call friends who read my reviews that share this same passion. That being said, a quarter of a century later, I have come to see that while the pain has dissipated, my curiosity in discussing it has not. Cox develops a wonderful narrative that describes how these two teams came to face one another, as well as the on-ice animosity that showed itself over the seven games. There was no inherent long-standing feud between these two teams, but bad blood arose in short order. The star players each team possessed, combined with the enforcers used to protect these assets, turned the series into one of rough play, bloodshed, and rule enforcement—or ignorance—by the referees.
Cox offers great context to better explain these two teams and key members of both franchises. This puts the series in context, as well as offering some poignant editorializing about the NHL and how it turned from being business heavy into solely a money-making league, with hockey only a means to amass greater wealth for both owners and players. Cox pulls no punches and does not let his Toronto roots cloud his sentiments, as he offers the reader some well-rounded discussion. Seeking less to argue a point than to offer up insight, Cox succeeds in telling his version of events and how things got to that pivotal game before Los Angeles found themselves bound to play the Montreal Canadiens and the Leafs were forced to wait for their trip to the Stanley Cup Finals—an event that has not happened for fifty-plus years. Well-researched and thoroughly educational, Cox has left readers with a stellar piece of sports writing that serves its purpose. I was enthralled throughout and think many hockey fans who enjoy more than on-ice events will be as well.
Kudos, Mr. Cox, for bringing this series to light again, twenty-five years later, which has allowed me to revisit things through adults eyes and better understand some of the behind the scenes events that I would have missed as a young fan!
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
February 4, 2022
Over the years, I’ve made several trips to Toronto, the first time being in 2001, two years after the final game played at Maple Leaf Gardens, the longtime home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. While I wasn’t able to go inside at the time, I was able to take a few photos of myself outside the old barn.
Fifteen years later, when I traveled back to Toronto for WWE Survivor Series, a friend and I stayed in a hotel not far from the old arena. By this time, however, the building had been converted into a mixed-use facility with the main floor being used as a grocery store. Within one of the aisles they have a red dot on the floor that symbolizes where center ice used to be when the Leafs called the building home.
While I recognized that I was physically inside Maple Leaf Gardens at the time, I was a long way from the roaring crowds, the on-ice fury and the fast action that made up the Leafs’ last great playoff run twenty-three years earlier. In his book, THE LAST GOOD YEAR, author and journalist Damien Cox took me back to 1993 and into the Gardens, when a long-suffering fan base experienced a brush with greatness and the deep sadness of soul-crushing loss.
If you’re not a fan of the Leafs, you could easily look at this book and scoff; of course the Maple Leafs would have a book written about a playoff run that wasn’t successful and a series that wasn’t even the finals! But that’s not just what this book is. This book is also about the game of hockey itself and how it seemed to change following the 1992/1993 season. Gone would be the days where reporters could catch a player for an interview on his way to his car after a game. Player contracts would explode in the coming years and hockey would become more of a business than ever before. Some things would change for the better in the coming years with respect to player compensation and protection, but it was around this time that the wild and crazy days of the NHL would come to an end.
I’ve read a few memoirs and biographies surrounding the participants in the Toronto Maple Leafs/Los Angeles Kings series (Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Pat Burns, Wayne Gretzky), but none quite captured the true urgency and competitive nature of the series. I loved getting multiple sides from the main players and how they viewed each play and event that made up this seven game war of attrition.
I’m not the biggest fan of Damien Cox with regards to his modern day journalistic work and his constant gloom-and-doom reporting of the Maple Leafs, which in turn causes myself (and the fanbase) to spiral out of control multiple times a season. That being said, he has written one hell of a book in “The Last Good Year”. Cox perfectly captured the drama of the series and the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants nature of the NHL in those days. For those that remember the glory days of this Leafs team, this book will probably rank higher, but you do not need to be a Leafs-loyalist to enjoy what Cox has crafted.
Fifteen years later, when I traveled back to Toronto for WWE Survivor Series, a friend and I stayed in a hotel not far from the old arena. By this time, however, the building had been converted into a mixed-use facility with the main floor being used as a grocery store. Within one of the aisles they have a red dot on the floor that symbolizes where center ice used to be when the Leafs called the building home.
While I recognized that I was physically inside Maple Leaf Gardens at the time, I was a long way from the roaring crowds, the on-ice fury and the fast action that made up the Leafs’ last great playoff run twenty-three years earlier. In his book, THE LAST GOOD YEAR, author and journalist Damien Cox took me back to 1993 and into the Gardens, when a long-suffering fan base experienced a brush with greatness and the deep sadness of soul-crushing loss.
If you’re not a fan of the Leafs, you could easily look at this book and scoff; of course the Maple Leafs would have a book written about a playoff run that wasn’t successful and a series that wasn’t even the finals! But that’s not just what this book is. This book is also about the game of hockey itself and how it seemed to change following the 1992/1993 season. Gone would be the days where reporters could catch a player for an interview on his way to his car after a game. Player contracts would explode in the coming years and hockey would become more of a business than ever before. Some things would change for the better in the coming years with respect to player compensation and protection, but it was around this time that the wild and crazy days of the NHL would come to an end.
I’ve read a few memoirs and biographies surrounding the participants in the Toronto Maple Leafs/Los Angeles Kings series (Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Pat Burns, Wayne Gretzky), but none quite captured the true urgency and competitive nature of the series. I loved getting multiple sides from the main players and how they viewed each play and event that made up this seven game war of attrition.
I’m not the biggest fan of Damien Cox with regards to his modern day journalistic work and his constant gloom-and-doom reporting of the Maple Leafs, which in turn causes myself (and the fanbase) to spiral out of control multiple times a season. That being said, he has written one hell of a book in “The Last Good Year”. Cox perfectly captured the drama of the series and the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants nature of the NHL in those days. For those that remember the glory days of this Leafs team, this book will probably rank higher, but you do not need to be a Leafs-loyalist to enjoy what Cox has crafted.
January 29, 2025
Like other reviewers, I remember this series well. It is perhaps the series that "broke" me, turning me into a much more casual fan, rather than someone who had to watch Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday, no matter what party or show I was missing. Not to mention booking off every evening for 6-8 weeks in April-May. These three Leafs series were amazing hockey, the loss was heartbreaking, not even redeemed by a Gretzky-led last Cup win, since the Kings proceeded to roll over and die in the final winning only 1 game against the Habs. But the most heartbreaking part is that the writing was on the wall for re-alignment, and this was literally the last chance in my lifetime to see the Leafs and Habs meet in a Stanley Cup final.
So obviously it's bittersweet to relive the experience. Cox is an excellent writer, though, and makes an interesting choice to follow individual players through certain games, including Gretzky and Gilmour, but also Marty McSorley, Bruce McNall, and Kerry Fraser. If you don't know who the last three are..... well, who am I kidding, you haven't even read this far in the review and would likely never pick up the book. It's a shame that the book appears so niche - author Cox does go into detail about the series itself, but also uses it as a frame to discuss the evolution of the game and business of hockey, which makes it more universal and analytical than the jacket description would indicate. That's a good thing!
So obviously it's bittersweet to relive the experience. Cox is an excellent writer, though, and makes an interesting choice to follow individual players through certain games, including Gretzky and Gilmour, but also Marty McSorley, Bruce McNall, and Kerry Fraser. If you don't know who the last three are..... well, who am I kidding, you haven't even read this far in the review and would likely never pick up the book. It's a shame that the book appears so niche - author Cox does go into detail about the series itself, but also uses it as a frame to discuss the evolution of the game and business of hockey, which makes it more universal and analytical than the jacket description would indicate. That's a good thing!
November 14, 2020
I’m typically pretty skeptical about books like this. They tend to be just exaggerated Wikipedia pages. That said, I found this book very interesting. Cox did a good job breaking the series down, going game by game, but also adding the perspective of key players on each team. As well as stories about those key players and their careers leading up to the series and what they’ve done to date, since that series.
Lots of information on trades that fell through, reactions to trades that went through. The psyche of players playing for Burns and Melrose. What life was like on the road during that series. Taking a quote from the movie Slap Shot, Cox really “captured the spirit of things”.
I got this book on sale or else I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Between my skepticism when it comes to books about a sport or written by an athlete and the fact that I’m not a huge fan of Damian Cox the sports journalist, I didn’t have high hopes. But I was hooked, got through this book ridiculously quick, despite knowing the ultimate result because it was pretty fascinating.
If your a hockey historian, leafs fan, hockey fan, this book is worth the read.
Lots of information on trades that fell through, reactions to trades that went through. The psyche of players playing for Burns and Melrose. What life was like on the road during that series. Taking a quote from the movie Slap Shot, Cox really “captured the spirit of things”.
I got this book on sale or else I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Between my skepticism when it comes to books about a sport or written by an athlete and the fact that I’m not a huge fan of Damian Cox the sports journalist, I didn’t have high hopes. But I was hooked, got through this book ridiculously quick, despite knowing the ultimate result because it was pretty fascinating.
If your a hockey historian, leafs fan, hockey fan, this book is worth the read.
June 3, 2025
This is a fascinating book about a fascinating time in the NHL. These were the Leafs that hooked me--that made me fan, made me take up hockey relatively late in life. As a fan, I was very familiar with Mr. Cox and his columns in the Toronto Star. This book is pure gold. The Leafs-Kings conference final is covered game by game with lots of insight and behind the scenes tea. It is all wrapped up in what may be one of the best epilogues ever in a sports book. Mr. Cox encapsulates the whole thing with a rather somber look of what was to come. Who knew what we were watching was already on the way out. The game was changing and would change more. The race to establish more markets and rapid expansion would water down the talent pool and escalating free agent contracts would alter rosters. Though I've disagreed with a lot of his columns over the years, Damien Cox nailed this. I'm grateful he wrote this book and consider it a must for any old time hockey fan.
September 20, 2020
A very good book on the 1993 Stanley Cup semifinals between the Los Angeles Kings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. I remember this series a little bit, being a Kings fan, but it was nice to relive that 7-game series that featured many good games. Each chapter is a game in the series, but in each chapter a key player, coach or even ref, is also discussed, so you can understand even more what was going on in the series. You read about players such as Doug Gilmour, Wendell Clark, Wayne Gretzky, Kelly Hrudey, Marty McSorley, Luc Robitaille, Felix Potvin as well as Barry Melrose, Bruce McNall and a certain referee with a certain controversial call in one of the games. Good stuff, but I felt near the end there was a bit of repeated stories and there was also an incorrect fact here and there. Overall, a good book and can't wait to read another by Damien Cox.
January 16, 2019
Damien Cox does a wonderful job capturing the tension, excitement and heartbreak of the series between the Leafs and Kings in May 1993. I was 2 years old during this series, not watching a single moment until the VHS, “The Passion Returns”. A summarization the 92-93 season and playoffs. I believe because of that tape, my obsession for the Maple Leafs was cemented for life. As Cox described goals within the series, I found myself YouTubing them. The game that looks so alien, yet so familiar. The 93 playoff run was what made Gilmour and Clark legends, and to read their reflections on it, 25 years later was fantastic. This book is an instant classic for Toronto Maple Leafs literature.
April 27, 2019
I've always found Damien Cox to be a very good writer, as I enjoyed reading his regular sports columns in The Toronto Star. This book gave me the same experience, as it was very well written and a joy to go through. Having lived through this series, reading everything in it took me back to it and opened my eyes to a lot of things I wasn't paying attention to or didn't know about at the time. To me it was the last best series worth remembering the Leafs played before the current era we have now. One of the best hockey books I've ever read! Very recommended if you are a fan of either teams in this book, Damien Cox's writing or just hockey in general.
September 15, 2019
An interesting revisit to the 1993 playoffs with fitting detours to gaze upon that time in the rear-view mirror. There were occasions throughout the book when factual errors were glaring, such as saying repeatedly that Gretzky had only three Stanley Cups rather than three. There were a few other occasions where the narrative of the gam action did not build the suspense as well as it could have. A great look back on a significant series and the fulcrum it was for both organizations but it could have been much more.
May 14, 2023
Damien Cox takes a key event in Toronto Maple Leafs history, the 1993 Western Conference Finals series against the Los Angeles Kings, and finds an interesting and unique way to weave the story together in “The Last Good Year”. Putting each game with a significant character in the series as the key division point is brilliant and gives the story a different flow than one would normally expect. Having lived through this playoff run, Cox’s take gives a new perspective and helps relive one of the richest times in modern Maple Leaf history. A quick read that is a must for all Maple Leaf fans.
June 26, 2023
Damn you, Damien Cox! It took me 30 years to get over the series, and then I just had to read your book. Every painful leafs memory came flooding back. So well written and told so well it was an amazing time capsule for a time when the Leafs' resurrection was at the forefront of every Toronto fan. Yes, the Leafs were finally going to the Stanley Cup and against the hated Canadiens. And then 7 games later, no, it would be the Kings. 250 pages, and I was drained as the final whistle went. I just hope that Damien gets to write about the leafs winning a Stanley Cup while I'm still alive.
December 19, 2018
The obvious comparator point for this book is "A Season in Time: Super Mario, Killer, St. Patrick, the Great One, and the Unforgettable 1992-93 NHL Season" If you're looking for a trip down memory lane/nostalgia way, between "The Last Good Year" and "A Season in Time" I would recommend the latter. Without downplaying the greatness of the 1993 Clarence Campbell Conference Finals, still the greatest 7 game series in my living memory, I didn't think there was enough material for an entire book.
October 2, 2022
This was such a fun read! I remember this time and the excitement like it was yesterday. My beloved Habs went on to win the cup, yet reading about this semi final series was not diminished by my team's ultimate success. A great time for hockey!!
May 21, 2024
Amazing insight into the series and the teams that fought those 7 games. Great details on the personnel and how the teams that played came to be. If you are a fan from that era, definitely worth a read.
November 16, 2018
One of the better hockey books I've read in recent years.
December 6, 2019
3.5 stars.
March 17, 2022
Outstanding nostalgic trip thru a great playoff series with behind the scenes and after the fact quotes intertwined. Bravo
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January 18, 2025dougie gilmour. B+
September 19, 2025
A great book that looks back the the Leafs - Kings semi final in the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs. Highly recommended to any hockey fan!
March 24, 2019
Great look into the exciting and slightly unhinged hockey world of the early 90's. Divided into seven acts for the seven games of the '93 Clarence Campbell Conference Finals, each chapter takes on the perspective of one of the players, managers, or referees of this classic showdown between the Leafs and the Kings. A great read for anyone interested in (Leafs/Kings) hockey history!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews